Northern Franchise the winner is?

['CHARD]

That only accounts for the 170s that have already left for Chiltern, it remains to be seen what will be done about those remaining - 67-hauled LHCS was briefly rumoured as a way of freeing up more DMUs, but seems unlikely.

 

Seems highly unlikely given Arriva's track record on Chiltern, where the 67s were sent back in favour of 68s.

[Glorious NSE]

Isn't it a bit more subtle than that, with some services moving from TPX to Northern, some TPX trains being worked by leased Northern stock, and on the flip side Northern using LHCS and transferring some workings to EMT?

[surfsup]

Seems highly unlikely given Arriva's track record on Chiltern, where the 67s were sent back in favour of 68s.

As an aside, I've heard that DB still isn't happy over that decision - as all 3 companies are DB Owned, and Chiltern's choice of having it's traction provided by competitor DRS hasn't pleased some by putting it's own 67s out of work.

 

That said, DBS I believe does still have some Mk3s in store so could probably coble together a rake.

[4630]

.

Edited November 15, 2016 by 4630

[newbryford]

With only just over a week to go until Arriva Rail North takes over the franchise on 1st April 2016, a rail trip from Huddersfield today showed evidence of the approaching end of the Serco Abellio era.

 

The majority of the Northern Rail rolling stock that I saw was 'debranded' and some station signage amended by white vinyl tape to mask out the Northern Rail logo.

 

This is 144003 in debranded condition at Huddersfield.

 

Debranded 144003 2O74 Huddersfield 22032016 RMWeb.jpg

 

Saw quite a few units without branding on my Northern Ranger last week.

 

150137 at Leeds with a half-hearted attempt to remove the decals.

 

Saw a couple of guys on Blackburn station last week going around with rolls of purple and white sticky paper and a pair of scissors just covering up the logos on the posters.............

 

Looks like Newton Heath have finally got onto the act over the weekend with all of the units my way today without Northern markings.

 

Cheers,

Mick

[Market65]

How much money will the removal of the branding cost? And then there is all the new paint and new branding to come from Arriva. Re-franchising is, potentially, a very costly exercise.

 

With regards,

 

Rob.

[jjb1970]

As an aside, I've heard that DB still isn't happy over that decision - as all 3 companies are DB Owned, and Chiltern's choice of having it's traction provided by competitor DRS hasn't pleased some by putting it's own 67s out of work.

 

That said, DBS I believe does still have some Mk3s in store so could probably coble together a rake.

This is quite a common issue in large companies where business units are responsible for managing their own budgets and where those with budgetary responsibility are only assessed against their own budget management, not the wider costs and benefits of buying in products and services from external providers that can be sourced from internal resource. I worked for one of the big 6 electricity companies, a German one, and spent an awful lot of money on laboratory, analytical and specialist engineering services from external providers which could have been provided by the companies own central functions. However the internal options were significantly more expensive and all I knew was that if I went over budget I got dragged over broken glass with their being no dispensation for arguing that I'd been keeping the money within the company by paying more for our own engineering services. I found it a bit odd really but c'est la vie.

[jessy1692]

Probably not that much, all notices round Harrogate, Pannal, Cattal etc have just had white tape over any Northern branding, the de vinyling of the trains just makes them look even more shabby. Harrogate staff still wearing Northern uniforms but i suppose you cant take thst off them!

Edit in reply to Rob

Edited March 22, 2016 by jessy1692

[newbryford]

How much money will the removal of the branding cost? And then there is all the new paint and new branding to come from Arriva. Re-franchising is, potentially, a very costly exercise.

 

With regards,

 

Rob.

 

There is a suspicion that the new Arriva run franchise will use the same colours as far as possible (despite it not being Arriva blue), thus not requiring another layer of paint. Time will tell.

 

Cheers,

Mick

[newbryford]

Looks like we have a new logo and website (for now)

 

http://www.arrivarailnorth.org/

 

Cheers,

Mick

Edited March 22, 2016 by newbryford

[Talltim]

Staff are supposed to be being involved in the design of the new uniforms, they've not been ordered yet.

Apparently none of the current Northern stock meets the required minimum spec (Passenger experience-wise) set out in the franchise agreement, it will all have to refurbished to meet it, excepting what is being replaced, obviously.

[Reorte]

Staff are supposed to be being involved in the design of the new uniforms, they've not been ordered yet.

Apparently none of the current Northern stock meets the required minimum spec (Passenger experience-wise) set out in the franchise agreement, it will all have to refurbished to meet it, excepting what is being replaced, obviously.

None of it? A lot of it is rather poor but some is perfectly decent passenger experience-wise, not sure what more it needs (possibly disabled toilets?) Certainly I'd rather travel on a Northern 156 than an awful lot of other trains out there, not sure what could be done to them other than a cosmetic spruce up.

[Talltim]

I'm guessing toilets is a lot of it.

[eastwestdivide]

At least they're trying to explain to passengers what's going on:

['CHARD]

None of it? A lot of it is rather poor but some is perfectly decent passenger experience-wise, not sure what more it needs (possibly disabled toilets?) Certainly I'd rather travel on a Northern 156 than an awful lot of other trains out there, not sure what could be done to them other than a cosmetic spruce up.

 

From memory, the franchise commitment is this (paraphrased):

 

'Units that are retained on the franchise must be subjected to a transformational refresh so that they resemble to passengers (in so far as possible given the retained fleet's age and inherent characteristics) a new train.'

 

 

All retained units will need to comply with the PRM-TSI as well, by December 31st 2019, so there's a fair amount of toilet work to crack on with.

[Reorte]

From memory, the franchise commitment is this (paraphrased):

 

'Units that are retained on the franchise must be subjected to a transformational refresh so that they resemble to passengers (in so far as possible given the retained fleet's age and inherent characteristics) a new train.'

Oh dear. That'll be all the table seats torn out and the legroom reduced on the 156s then.

[Vin]

Hi all,

Last night I was talking a crew whom were de vinyling the Northern stock and they said, it took longer than 8 hours to do 4 coaches because the original vinyl was cheap and they had been baked onto the bodyside by the sun!

 

Regards

Vin

[4630]

.

Edited November 14, 2016 by 4630

[stewartingram]

...........OMG........................

 

 

Stewart

[4630]

. 

Edited November 14, 2016 by 4630

['CHARD]

Boring, ridiculous, random rubbish.  Practically the old dull Northern palette now applied to TPE, and utterly disregards the shapes and intrusions of the unit's intrinsic features. 

 

Hilariously, everything below solebar has been treated to Railmatch track grime.  

[wombatofludham]

Having seen photos of the complete unit on flickr I personally think it's a vast improvement on the current First Transpennine colours and enormously better than the truly hideous (and for me to say that it must be bad...) Transpennine "electric" livery which is positively nauseating.  The rest of the new livery away from the front is largely silver and grey and actually suits the units.  Whilst the front end treatment won't appeal to conservative tastes the overall effect is far more restrained than the current Transpennine liveries.  It's nice to see the First rail franchises moving away from their hideous blue and pink towards unique brands for their routes.  I've never been convinced that plastering everything as "First" was in any way meaningful to Jo and Joanna Numpty, and if anything the "First" brand has become tarnished in many parts of the country, which might explain their move away from corporatism.  Perhaps Hull Trains might see a more local brand being re-established in the near future.

[Steadfast]

Out with the the clip art for that logo...it seems in modern society that if you can't think of what else to draw, use a star!

Maybe they're planning on pairing up with Virgin galactic?

At least the livery on the desiro looks better than the CGI of a Hitachi unit in the livery

 

Jo

[woodenhead]

But has it got Wifi and can they do that livery on a Montego.

[Joseph_Pestell]

Externally rebranded TransPennine Express (TPE) 185108 stands at Manchester Piccadilly on 1st April 2016 at an event to launch the new TPE and Northern franchises.

185108 Manchester Piccadilly 01042016 RMWeb.jpg

I think that's the worst yet.